Itazura
by Kurosu Yumi
Summary: Three genin from Kurogakure are sent on a mission to find out information about an allied attack against Konohagakure, all the while trying to pass the Chunin Exams. It's a tough life as a Shinobi, but they don't really mind.
1. Chapter 1

_**Itazura**_

_**Author's Note:**** So um, yeah. My last Naru/Inu x-over didn't exactly** _**fail, but it wasn't exactly…successful, in my opinion. I'm gonna be completely honest with you; I suck at Naruto/Inuyasha crossovers. I'm so bias on them that it's not even funny. But I love the fandom ****so freaking much**_**. So guys, I'm gonna try to slowly, but gradually finish a Naruto/Inuyasha x-over without giving up on it. Wish me luck.**_

→_**Disclaimer**_

**Uh, I own a Katana, though I still haven't gotten around to wielding it. But I don't own the fandoms, so yeah.**

* * *

"I'm assigning you three to a mission." Sesshomaru began, glaring into the eyes of his best genin team. "Other genin teams have already been assigned have left the village. I kept you three here so I can give you three a side mission."

The three stood straighter, their expressions ranging from indifference to on the point of excitement. "We've received word from one of our shinobi that the Kazekage had formed an alliance with the new village of Sound." Sesshomaru narrowed his eyes, looking into the blue, purple and pupilless lavender ones that stared back. If it wasn't for the color of his hair, Sesshomaru mused, one would confuse the boy as a Hyuuga.

"We have reason to believe that the Sand and Sound have been plotting an attack against Konohagakure, who have been allies with Kurogakure since we helped them build their village," Sesshomaru almost chuckled at the irritated expressions on their face. They had come for a mission, not a history lesson. But then again, he had said _almost._

"The other teams have no word of this, and we'd like to keep it that way. So I'm sending you too Konoha for the Chunin exams to gather information and pass them." He smirked at the looks they sent him. "Your new Team leader will be meeting you at the gates. You are dismissed; Houshi, Kumo, Higurashi."

* * *

"I wonder how hard the mission is going to be." Miroku mused to his two teammates. They each had a small pack filled with scrolls, some with just simple writings and techniques, and others with their things for the missions sealed within them.

"Well," Kagome began, in the middle of the two. "We are genins, going undercover to find out information about a possible infiltration. I'm saying this is either a B or A rank." Hakudoshi nodded next to her, agreeing with her statement.

They arrived at the gate soon after. "Oh no…" Miroku groaned, seeing familiar red hair. Hakudoshi grunted, catching the sleeve of Kagome's simple blue kosode shirt to stop her from running to the guy. "Shippo-san!" Kagome shouted in glee, sending a half-hearted glare at her teammate.

'Shippo-san' turned around at his name, smiling at his new team. "Ah, nice to see you three again. I haven't seen you in—" He made a childish display with his arms. "—this long!" He ruffled their hair, much to their annoyance.

"We have no time to lose! I just saw Kagura and her team leaving." Shippo frowned, watching as they all glowered. It was a known fact that his new team and Kagura's were not exactly friendly with each other. However, he wasn't worried about his team getting hurt, he was worried about hers.

It had taken them a total of two days to get there, having only three hour breaks where they'd eat, sleep or relax. But finally, they had approached the large gates of Konoha. Shippo showed the guards their passport into the village soon after.

"You guys go wander around and get a feel for the village," Shippo began, a grin on his face. "I'll inform the Hokage that we have arrived, and I'll get us some rooms in one of the hotels." He made shooing motions with his hands.

"Hai, Shippo-sensei." They answered in sync. After he left, they all looked at each other. "Out of all the Jonin Sesshomaru-sama could've given us…" Hakudoshi grumbled, shaking his head. "You have to admit though," Miroku countered. "We've had experience with Shippo-sensei. If it was anyone else, we'd probably have not made it past the gates."

Kagome nodded, tugging both their sleeves to move. "We might as well explore like sensei said." She murmured. Her eyes light up after a thought. "We might be able to find a training ground, too." They all nodded at that. They had been planning on training the day they were sent on this mission, but _obviously_ some things got in the way.

They were rounding the corner when they heard a yell, though anger backed up the fear behind it. "Hmm…" Kagome hummed, tugging her teammates to it. "Let him go, he's just a kid!" The yell got closer. "Konohamaru!"

Miroku furrowed his brow at the anger that suddenly coursed through his female teammate at seeing the young boy being bullied. "Kagome-san, wait—" She was off in a flash. "C'mon, we got to make sure she doesn't kill the guy." Hakudoshi grumbled, going to where the two groups of people stood.

Kagome ran. She passed the blond haired boy a curious look because of his aura, but other than that proceeded to rescue the little kid. "What the—!" Kankuro shouted, dropping the kid and holding his hand to his chest, all the while trying to ignore the pain in his legs. A little pebbled rolled innocently on the ground.

Kagome quickly grabbed the kid, stopping a few feet away from the blond boy and pink haired girl. "Sugio." The boy in her arms whispered, staring at her in awe. "What's your name, kid?" Kagome asked, flickering he gaze to the child briefly. "Konohamaru." He answered.

She set the boy down, her teammates running over to her. "Kagome-san, you need to stop running off like that." Miroku huffed. "Hn." Was Hakudoshi's reply to her actions. "Who the hell are you?" Kankuro growled. "Why don't you look at our headbands? That'll answer your question." Kagome answered, her voice like ice.

Her gaze flickered up to the black haired boy in the tree and the red haired boy, who everyone seemed to be unaware of. "I don't recognize the headband." Kankuro glared at her, thinking it was a fake. Kagome raised her brow. "Ever heard of Kurogakure?" The slight widening of everyone's eyes made her know that they all recognized the village.

Kagome dismissed the blond girl and Kankuro, going to heal the bruise that was forming on Konohamaru's neck. Kankuro glared, taking off the thing on his back that looked to be a human mummy. "Kankuro, back off." The red head finally spoke, surprising the black haired teen.

The pink haired girl immediately blushed when she set her eyes on the black haired boy. "Sasuke!" She squealed. Kagome smirked, closing her eyes as even her teammates were caught off guard. "Gaara…" The two sand genins whispered in fear. 'Gaara' disappeared using his sand and appeared in front of the two, staring at the group.

"You're an embarrassment to our village." Gaara stated, not even caring about the shocked gasps he received at the proclamation. His eyes flickered from Sasuke to Kagome; though he didn't show any indication he was curious.

"I know, I know," Kankuro began, his voice suddenly turning nervous. "You see, they started it!" Kagome raised a brow at the childish exclamation. "Here's how it happened—" Gaara cut him off. "Shut up." Gaara narrowed his eyes. "Or I'll kill you." Kankuro stopped talking.

Gaara turned to the two groups. "I'm sorry for any trouble he caused." He stated. They started to leave, the pink haired girl suddenly running out. "Sakura…" The blond sighed, while Konohamaru asked his hero, who they learned was named Naruto, why he wasn't cooler like Kagome and Sasuke.

"Wait! Stop!" Sakura shouted, stopping the Sand genin. She looked at both Kagome's team and Gaara's. "I can tell from both your headbands that you're from a different village." Hakudoshi scowled. "Of course the Land of Fire, the Land of Wind, and the Land of Dark are allies, but they're not allowed into another's village without permission."

Kagome stared at the girl. She didn't normally base opinions of people from the first meeting, I mean, she and Hakudoshi were _friends_! But…"Is this girl stupid or something?" Miroku asked his thoughts to his teammates, and they both nodded discreetly. They had completely missed the next part of the conversation, but they dubbed it as unimportant.

"Hey you." Sasuke said, once again stopping the sand genin. "What's your name?" Temari turned around, blushing. "Hmm? You mean me?" Sasuke glared at her. "No, him. The guy with the gourd on his back." Gaara turned around. "My name is Gaara of the Desert. I'm curious about you two…who are you both?"

Sakura immediately began speaking. "Oh, well I'm Sakura Haruno and he's—" Gaara's glare made her cut herself off. "Not you," He began. "The black haired boy and the black haired girl." Temari and Kankuro started at that. Gaara was _never_ interested in another person, much less the opposite gender.

Sakura glared at Kagome. "I am Sasuke Uchiha." Sasuke stated, watching Gaara with calculating eyes. His dark orbs glided over to Kagome, who had an indifferent look. "I'm Kagome Higurashi." She didn't even spare him a look. "I bet you're dying to know my name right?!" Naruto shouted, breaking the silence.

"I couldn't care less." Gaara spoke, turning around with his team. Naruto began a fit. Kagome looked around the area. She smirked, sensing three other individuals watching. She turned her eyes towards there hiding place, glaring at them.

The three hidden shinobi seemed surprised, sending her a glare before they leapt off to who knows where. Kagome stared hard at the tree for a while before turning to look at the silent groups before her.

They all stared at one another in a silence. Sakura was glaring at Kagome, Naruto was glaring at Sasuke, Hakudoshi was glaring at Sakura, Sasuke was oblivious, Kagome was indifferent, and Miroku was nervous.

"Uh…why don't we introduce ourselves properly to each other, hmm?" Miroku, always the peace maker.

Naruto warmed up to Kagome fast, as did she to him. Her teammates were used to this, if not a bit peeved at her completely ignoring them. Naruto's teammates were used to him not having a lot of friends, much less fiends not from the village.

Their team explained to Konoha genin team that they were just looking around for a training ground when they heard Naruto shouting. "You're gonna be a very brave ninja." Kagome ruffled Konohamaru's hair, much to his embarrassment.

Noon soon turned to afternoon, and the three groups bid each other goodnight with a promise to meet up during the exams.

* * *

Kagome felt the bead of sweat roll down her face. Maybe she'd gone a little overboard with her clones. "Secret Technique: Acid Whip." Kagome murmured, a glowing blue whip like liquid shooting out of her two fingers.

She immediately sliced her clone in half, watching as it shimmered out of existence. She turned to the last one, panting now. She'd made ten clones exactly, but they had a lot of chakra shoved into them. She managed to kill the first four easily before her own clones ganged up on her.

Her last clone smirked tauntingly. "Aw, is little Kaggie-chan tired? Wanna take a nap?" Kagome felt her brow twitch in annoyance. "You just indirectly insulted yourself. You realize you are me, right?" Her clone flipped her the finger.

"How rude," Was Kagome's reply as she sent her acid whip at it. She took pleasure in the surprise left on her clone's face before it too, shimmered out of existence. All throughout the week they had trained.

During that time they had gotten no info on the invasion, nor had they seen Team Seven anywhere. Today was the day the exams started, but Kagome wanted to test out her acid whip once more. It was a new technique to her, as Sesshomaru had taught it to her a week before they left.

She estimated she had about four hours till the exams started. Enough time to get clean, dress, rest and eat. With that in mind, Kagome sent a bit of chakra to her feet and burst off towards her sleeping team.

* * *

Sakura eyed the sword strapped to Kagome's hip warily. "Do you even know how to wield that thing?" Kagome turned to her, a slight smile on her face at the girls' curiosity. "Aniki-sama was my first sensei ever. He began teaching me as soon as I could walk, staring with kendo."

After a moment she turned back with a frown. "And don't call him a thing. His name's Ryuu." And she ran to catch up with Miroku. "Him…" Sakura mouthed to herself, silently wondering over the girls' sanity.

"What the hell is going on?" Kagome asked, eyes glinting as she helped the guy in the green body suit up. "There not letting us in." A random Konoha genin supplied, glaring slightly at the two males blocking the doorway. "Lee…" A girl with her hair tied in two buns sighed in worry, also helping the male in the green body suit.

"You're taking the Chunin exams but you can't even get passed us? Just go back the way you came." The two teens teased, sneering at Lee. "Please let us through, we're supposed to go in there." The girl stood up, trying to get passed them.

Kagome's glare could freeze hell over when she caught the girl after she got punched. "Tenten!" Lee yelled, helping his teammate. She stepped up, blocking the punch that was aimed at her. "You don't wanna do that." She warned, gaining a sadistic gleam in her eyes as she twisted the hand.

A hand was placed on her shoulder. "Kagome-san, stop." Miroku instructed. She let go of his hand, but sent one last glare at the two teens still in the door way. Kagome growled. "Make sure to redo that genjutsu." Their eyes widened.

"Well, aren't you a smart one." They smirked at her. "You got through an illusion. Now let's see you get through this!" Sasuke immediately stepped in, both him and the one teen who spoke going after to kick each other.

Lee stopped them. "Hey, what happened to the plan? I thought you were the one who said we should save our abilities for the real exam." The brown haired pupilless boy said, looking at Lee. "I know but…" Lee blushed.

Tenten sighed. "Well, don't worry. It's over." She turned to Kagome. "Thanks, y'know, for catching me." Kagome nodded. The genjutsu was dispelled a while ago. Lee suddenly went up to Sakura, getting put off from Kagome's 'bodyguards' who glared at him when he went to ask Kagome.

"My name is Rock Lee. You are Sakura right?" Sakura nodded. "Will you please be my girlfriend; I vow to protect you with my life." Kagome stared, wide-eyed at the proclamation. She turned to Hakudoshi, an amused look on her face as she tried not to laugh at the look on Sakura's face.

"I suggest we start moving." He stated, tugging at Kagome's sleeve when she stayed still. "Hey you, what's your name?" The pupilless boy asked Sasuke, who pointed out his rudeness. "Kagome! Why does everyone want to know Sasuke's name and not mine?" Naruto whined, latching onto Kagome's leg.

Kagome laughed nervously at him. "If it makes you feel better, Naruto. I don't care about Sasuke's name…" That seemed to brighten the blond, since he instantly went to Sasuke taunting: "Gome doesn't care about you!" over and over.

Kagome shook her head, slinking silently out of the room. She was unaware of the pupilless eyes that followed her curiously.

* * *

_**Author's Note: **_**I hope you guys don't mind the story. To those who might ask questions about the title, it means mischief in Japanese. Sorry if someone the characters are a bit OOC, I haven't seen Naruto in a while. I also hope that those who have been reading "Once Upon a Time" don't mind me taking weekends off to work on this. So, yeah...**

**Read and Review…**

**-Alex**


	2. Chapter 2

_**Itazura**_

_**Author's Note: **_**Thanks for all the nice reviews guys. And thanks for the follows and favs. I hope you like the Tony/Kagome one-shot I posted. It's not the M-rated one I promised, but that's too keep you guys entertained. ****Also, I'm not going to reply to reviews unless it's something you did not understand. FFnet messed up all my italics and non-italics last Itazura chapter. *Sad face***

**Yum, Mountain Dew. I own neither anime nor manga.**

* * *

"I wonder what's taking Naruto and his team so long…" Kagome murmured, staring at the door in slight worry. A couple of other genins looked at her in surprise, obviously recognizing his name. "You know Naruto?" A boy with two red fang-like stripes on his cheeks said, a puppy nestled into his jacket.

Kagome eyed him. "Yeah, we met him a week ago." She didn't feel like sharing the circumstances under they met. The puppy sniffed in her direction, jumping out of the boys cloak and into her arms. "Akamaru!" the boy groaned. "My name's Kiba by the way. Akamaru has never liked anyone so fast before…" Kiba mumbled.

"Probably because I hang around ninken all the time." Kagome answered with a smirk, Miroku snickering in the background because he knew who she was referring to. She handed back the reluctant Akamaru. "These are my teammates; Hakudoshi Kumo and Miroku Houshi. We're from Kurogakure."

Kiba grinned, recognizing the name immediately. "I can't say it for anyone else, but I know the village. Well, my mother does. She's been sent there a lot." He turned to his two teammates, waving them over. "This is my team, Hinata Hyuuga and Shino Aburame." Hinata blushed, twiddling her pointer fingers together.

Kagome smiled. "Hinata-chan, you wouldn't happen to be related to him, would you?" She asked, jabbing her thumb over to the pupilless boy from before. "N-Neji-san's my cousin…" Hinata mumbled, though her eyes betrayed the respect she held for him.

It was in that moment a roughed up Naruto and Sasuke entered the room, followed by a nervous Sakura. "Gome!" Naruto shouted, abandoning his teammates and bolting to her side. "Get off her, baka." Hakudoshi growled, literally peeling him from Kagome's side and tossing him next to his teammates, who weren't that far away.

Kagome stared at the blond girl on Sasuke's back, face completely blank. Suddenly, she began to snicker, trying to keep from blown out laughing. "Oh…_Oh that's priceless!_" Her laughing caught the attention of Sasuke, who narrowed his eye at her and the blond girl, whose name was Ino.

"Sasuke's getting sexually assaulted!" Kagome snickered. Naruto grinned and Kiba smirked, already liking the girls' attitude and relieved to find she wasn't a fangirl. "I am not assaulting my Sasu!" Ino shouted, glaring at the girl.

Who was she to assume such things! "This is such a drag." A boy with a hair style similar to a pineapple complained, his bored eyes sweeping over everyone in the room. "Looks like the whole gang's back together." Kiba interrupted, smirking at everyone.

Kagome walked over, her head poking between Naruto's and Sasuke's. "So you _are _nine are the genins all these guys are talking about." Naruto flipped at her sudden appearance, the rest rolling their eyes. A silver haired man, much like Kakashi's hair color, came up to them. "Hey, you guys. You might wanna keep it down a little."

The nine rookies, plus Kagome looked at the teen approaching them. "I mean, no offense, but you're the nine rookies, right? Fresh out of the academy." He cast a curious glance at Kagome's headband, seeing she wasn't from the village. "I wouldn't go making a fool out of yourself. This isn't a class field trip."

Kagome narrowed her eyes at the teen, feeling something about him a bit…off. The teen silenced Ino's question by introducing himself. "I'm Kabuto Yakushi; but really, look around you." He taunted. Rookie Nine all gasped at the surrounding, threatening looking shinobi. Kagome flickered her gaze over to them and Kabuto, having already checked them out.

"You've made quite an impression." Kabuto stopped joking then. "See those guys? They're from the rain village, very touchy. This exam makes everyone tense, and you don't wanna rub them the wrong way right now." Kagome, while she still was wary of the teen, had to agree with him.

Kagome flickered her gaze over to the teams from her village, seeing that they hadn't noticed the danger that they actually were in. "Hn," She murmured to herself. "Bakas', all of them." She seemed to have missed part of the conversation and berated herself mentally.

"Cool you can give us all the inside tips!" Naruto shouted, making Kagome confused. Inside tips for what? "He's never passed." Shikamaru yawned. Kabuto became shy suddenly. "Well, you know what they say, seventh time's a charm." Kagome almost tripped over her feet, _almost_. Seven times? Either he was just joking, or he had no intelligence at all.

Kabuto took out some cards he called 'info cards', showing them to the rookie nine and herself. "It's hard to explain, but these cards have been chakra encoded with everything I've learned these past four years." Kabuto explained, kneeling on the floor and stacking the cards.

"I've got more than two hundred of them, so I'm not completely wasting my time." Kabuto gleamed with pride at his cards. He turned a card over, placing his finger onto the blank surface. "It might not seem like much to the naked eyes, but I don't want just anyone seeing this stuff." Kagome had to admit, she gave him props for it.

"Nice trick." She smirked, watching as he twirled the card. He nodded in her direction at the compliment. A small dust cloud covered the card and a map of the FGSC, aka; Five Great Shinobi Countries popped up. He took another card out, revealing some of the lesser known shinobi countries. "Here's where your friend comes from." Kabuto mumbled, pointing to a large island that had the name "Kurogakure" draped across it.

Kabuto began to explain to the rookies about the shinobi nations and stuff, things she already knew. She was still a bit wary from him, something just didn't seem right. After a couple of moments of contemplating this, she heard Sasuke begin to speak. "Do those cards of yours include information on someone individually?"

Kabuto smirked. "They might. Why, you have someone in mind?" Sasuke nodded. "I might." Kabuto swiped his cards, shuffling them with obvious ease. _'Wonder if he's good a poker.' _Kagome thought, amused. "I'm not guaranteed on accuracy," He glanced towards Kagome. "But I've got just about something on everyone." He smirked at the rookies. "Including you guys, obviously."

"So which one is it? Tell me anything you know of them—a description, where they're from, whatever." Kabuto held up a card. Sasuke narrowed his eyes. "There's Gaara of the Desert, Rock Lee from the Leaf Village," Sasuke sent a narrowed look to Kagome. "And Kagome Higurashi from Kurogakure."

Ino glared at her, obviously thinking Sasuke was interested in her. "Why Sasuke, that hurts." Kagome mockingly said, a wounded face plastered on her. She held her hand above her heart, even going as far as taking a step back to explain her 'hurt'. Miroku snickered, whispering to Kiba. "I taught her that. Never thought she'd actually use it."

Kabuto grumbled about it being easy because he already knew their names before he infused his chakra into the cards. He held three cards up afterwards. "Show them to me." Sasuke demanded after smacking Kagome in the head. He didn't want to admit it, but it was refreshing to have someone to talk intelligently with and not drool over him or act like an idiot.

"Okay, first up is Rock Lee." All basic info on the genin poofed up n the card. "Let's see…" Kabuto murmured. "He's a year older thank you guys. Mission experience calls for twenty D rank and eleven C rank. His squad leader is Gai. In the last twelve months his taijutsu has rapidly improved. His other skills are pretty shaky. Last year he got a lot of attention as a genin, but for some reason chose not to participate in the Chunin Exam."

Kabuto took a breath. "This will be his first time, just like you guys. His teammates are Tenten and Neji Hyuuga." Hinata softened her eyes a bit at the name. "Okay. Up next Gaara of the Desert." Kabuto did the same with the first card, and all of the redhead's basic info showed up.

"Mission experience eight C rank and—whoa, get this. One B rank. There's not a lot of information on this card. He was a genin from another land originally." Kabuto frowned. "There is this. He survived every mission without getting a scratch on him. His teammates are Temari and Kankuro of the Desert." The surprised faces of the rookies made Kagome want to cringe with how un-informed they were with their allies.

"And finally, Kagome Higurashi." Kabuto stared at the girl, a little unnerved with how guarded she became when her name was spoken. Just what was so special about her card? "Says here she graduated two years early, along with her teammates. Mission experience twenty-five D rank, fifteen C rank—" Kabuto's eyes widened at the information. "Five B rank, and…two A rank."

The rookies stared at Kagome in silence. "What?" She finally snapped. "We teach our shinobi a lot different than others—it's not uncommon for a skilled genin to get an A or B ranked mission!" She sniffed. Kabuto returned to her info.

"Says her she doesn't really have a sensei, though their current one is a Shippo Mendona. She's returned from all of her missions having minimum wounds. Her teammates are Miroku Houshi and Hakudoshi Kumo."

Kagome walked towards her teammates, having slipped out once Kabuto began talking again. "He has cards on us—our information, what we're good at, what we're not, what mission ranks we've been on." Hakudoshi narrowed his eyes. "You think he could be behind the coup d'état?" Miroku asked in a hushed whisper.

Kagome shook her head with a grim look. "No, I don't think he's behind it. He might be a follower—a pawn in the game. We just need to keep an eye on him." Naruto suddenly proclaimed that he'd beat everyone in the room, causing a high tension of bloodlust to creep over everyone.

"Naruto…you baka." Kagome murmured, going back to discussing the mission with her teammates. "We have a team of Sound here, right?" Kagome asked, watching as Miroku nodded and discreetly lead her to them with his eyes.

Kagome narrowed her eyes at the sense of familiarity she felt. Where had she seen them? She turned back to her teammates. "Let's keep an eye on the Sound and Kabuto." She paused for a moment. "Keep an eye on those three rain nins too—Kabuto mentioned them."

Kagome could admit it; she was in her element. She could deal with the death that came with being a Shinobi, but she loved finding information. "What do you think their involvement is?" Hakudoshi questioned, watching Kabuto.

"I don't think they know they're being played—or even know about the invasion." Miroku murmured, eyeing their auras. "Their auras hold no ounce of suspicion." Kagome nodded, having felt that too. "So then they're pawns, not knowing they're being played." She declared. She kept her eyes on them. "Though, to be safe, let's keep an eye on them. Right now our main focus is—" Sakura's yell of "Kabuto!" distracted her.

"Kuso, I missed what happened." Kagome grumbled. "I didn't." Hakudoshi glared, watching as the rookies gathered around Kabuto. "That seemed staged to me. Everyone knows that you're not allowed the fight unless you're given the go from an instructor in the Chunin Exams. Penalty is disqualification." Hakudoshi began.

"That's not all. When the Sound started to move in, Kabuto was watching them, no surprise shown until they attacked. Whatever it is, Kabuto is defiantly not a Konoha nin." Hakudoshi summarized just before a man barged into the room.

"All right you baby-faced degenerates! Pipe down and listen up!" Kagome snickered at the weird name he called them. "It's time to begin. I'm Ibiki Moreno; your proctor, but from this moment, your worst enemy."

* * *

**_Author's Notes: _****I can honestly say I'm kinda enjoying writing this. I had an idea similar to this a year ago, but never acted on it. I'm glad you guys like it so far, though. I think I'm gonna post one drabble a day, and try to post some chapters of this in a week. So this doesn't really have an updating schedule, it's just updated whenever I finish it. **

**Read and Review!**

**-Alex**


	3. Chapter 3

_**Itazura**_

_**Author's Note:**__** Points to NaotoH for guessing who the 'ninken' are! xD. This story has really got me going, I like how it's turning out. Guys, you have to read "The Mating Frenzy" by MSkyDragons. It's a Naruto story. And Daleks have mercy on me, I died from laughter. **_

**Chinese food is awesome. So are the Avengers. I don't own a thing.**

* * *

Ibiki smirked, pointing towards the Sound nin. "First, you candidates from the Sound, knock it off. Who said you could fight?" Kagome narrowed her eyes at the Sound nins' answer. "Sorry, it's our first time. Guess we're a little jumpy."

"Pfft, Jumpy my ass." Miroku whispered, also glaring at them. Ibiki smirked. "Listen up, cause I'm only saying this once. There will be no combat between candidates without the permission of your proctor. Even then, the use of fatal force is strictly prohibited."

The look Ibiki gave made some of them shiver in apprehension. "Anyone who thinks about messing with me will be disqualified immediately. Got it?" Everyone kept quiet. "If there are no objections, we'll proceed with the written test."

Kagome watched as Naruto freaked out. "Guess I'm helping him." She sighed. Hakudoshi glared, silently wondering why she kept helping the brat. _'It's not like she's known him her whole life.'_ He thought, grumbling.

* * *

Kagome sent a look at her teammates. Luck was in their favor. They had been placed so that they could keep an eye on the Sand, Sound, Kabuto, and the Rain nins. Though, Kagome was a bit wary since she had to sit by Gaara. He kept glancing at her. It was a little unnerving.

"Everyone, eyes front." Ibiki demanded, smacking the chalk board. "There are a few rules you need to know. I'm not taking any questions so you better pay attention!" Kagome rolled her eyes.

"Rule number one: The written exam is based on a point deduction. On a contrast to what you're normally used to, you all begin the exam with a perfect score of ten points. One point will be deducted for each point you get wrong. So if you miss three, your final score will be seven."

Kagome smirked, sending a nod to her teammates. "Rule number two: You pass or fail based on the total score of the three members." Most teams looked like they were going to die right then. Kagome hid her giggles as she watched Sakura bang her head on the table.

"What a second! You say that we're all going to get scored as a team?!" Sakura shouted. Ibiki glared at her, saying he had his reasons.

"Rule number three: The Chunin you see positioned around the room are there to watch you carefully for any signs of cheating. And for every incident they spot, they will subtract two points from the culprit's score."

Murmurs went around the room, everyone suddenly getting nervous. "Be warned, their eyes are extremely sharp. And if they catch you five times you'll be dismissed before the tests can be even scored. Anyone fool enough to be caught by them doesn't deserve to be here."

A chunin that looked like the kid from the hallways scared a couple of the genin closest to him. "If you should be considered shinobi, then show us what kind of shinobi you can be." Kagome mentally counted down in her head. _'Five, four, three, two…'_. "One more thing, if a team member gets a zero, the whole team fails."

Everyone suddenly sat up straight. Some teammates even sent others warning glares. "The final question will not be given out until the final fifteen minutes. You have an hour. Begin!" In a flurry of flipping papers, everyone immediately began their tests.

Kagome growled. She had gotten through the first question with minimum difficulty, but the rest of them were ridiculous! It was almost as if they wanted them to cheat. Kagome widened her eyes after a moment. _'Jeez. I'm such an idiot. Of course they want us to cheat!'_

Doing the hand signs by her side, she murmured her jutsu. "Secret Technique: X-ray Vision." Almost immediately, wherever she looked, she could see everyone papers. She secretly searched everyone's aura, looking for the one who was confident. "Aha, gotcha." She murmured, memorizing the scratching on the paper and copying them down.

Gaara passed her a curious glance, obviously hearing the jutsu she did before doing his own jutsu. Kagome passed him a glance too, whispering a quick, "Nice jutsu." before she glanced at everyone around the room.

She looked to Miroku first. To others he seemed to be sleeping, but in reality he was memorizing the rapid scraps of pencils by other shinobi. He started to write, pausing to send her a confident grin before returning to his work.

Next she turned to Hakudoshi, who by the looks of things, was already done. She sent a glare at the mocking smirk he sent her. It's not her fault she didn't recognize what she was supposed to do immediately.

Sakura and Sasuke seemed to be breezing through it. Cautiously, Kagome looked to Naruto, seeing he had his head hanged in defeat. Kagome shook her head, sighing as she did another set of hand signs. Memorizing her answers, she mumbled, "Mind Body Switch Technique." and slumped into her chair.

Naruto suddenly slumped to before Kagome took over. Naruto started freaking out, yelling and asking what happened. _'Calm down Naruto!' _She yelled, in her—er, Naruto's mind. _'Kagome?...' _He questioned. _'Yeah, it's me. I'm gonna help you ace this test. Just be quiet while I answer the questions.' _She sensed Naruto nod and got to work.

After a few moments, Kagome announced she was done. '_Thanks Kagome, I owe you one.' _Naruto said. _'I'm leaving now Naruto, see you later.' _With that said—thought, Kagome dispelled her jutsu. Kagome immediately came aware of her surroundings, but it took Naruto some time to grasp his body.

Naruto sent her a grin, nodding in thanks. She smiled back; leaning onto her arms and watching the rest of the test go by. The thud of a kunai made her snap up, seeing Naruto's pale-stricken face. "Wah…What was that all about!?" A Konoha genin asked, shivering in fear. The chunin who threw it smirked. "Five strikes and you're out. You just failed the test."

Kagome yawned as each chunin called out candidates, watching team and team fail the test. She caught Sasuke's eye, nodding at him when he sent a pointed look to Naruto. He visibly relaxed a little, setting his own pencil down.

More and more teams went before Ibiki began speaking again. "Now that we've weeded out most of the homeless cases, we have fifteen minutes left. "Kagome smirked, sitting upright. Finally, tenth question had come.

"Alright, listen up! Here's the tenth and final question. But, before I give you the question, there are some more rules you need to be aware of." Everyone tensed. "These rules are unique to question ten, listen carefully. And try not to let them frighten you."

"Rule number one; each of you can choose to not be given the final question. It's your decision." A few gasps went around the room. "Though, if you choose to not take the question regardless to the other nine, you get a zero. In other words you fail, also causing your teammates to fail as well."

Everyone began mumbling. "Not so fast; you didn't let me finish. If you do accept the mission, but answer incorrectly, you will not only fail…" Everyone held their breaths. "You will be banned from taking the Chunin Exam ever again!"

Kiba shouted something, but Kagome was too lost in her thoughts, missing more of the conversation. She frowned. _'I think I understand his reasoning. With the written exam, we had to gather information without getting caught, just like in a mission. And now, he's basically screaming at us that when you're a chunin, you have to make choices that risk your teammates and yours safety.' _

She smirked. _'I've got this thing down. I just hope the others understand this.' _She tuned back in, just in time for people to begin raising their hands. Kagome frowned; did they not have _any_ faith in themselves?

Naruto was twitching, obviously concerned about his teammates. Kagome turned to look at Sakura. The girl was having an inner conflict with herself, and Kagome could guess who it was about. Sakura was about to raise her hand, and Kagome turned away, not wanting to see her efforts put to waste when Naruto slammed his fist down on the desk.

She jumped, surprised. "Don't underestimate me! I don't run and I don't quit! You can act tough all you want, ya ain't gonna scare me away! I don't care if I do get stuck as a genin for the rest of my life, I'll still be Hokage some day!"

Kagome, Hakudoshi, and Miroku shared a look. Hakudoshi smirked, Miroku grinned and Kagome giggled under her breath. She watched Naruto sit down, and sent a grin at him, which he returned. Ibiki didn't falter. "This decision will change your life. If for whatever reason you want to quit, now's your last chance."

Naruto smirked. "No way. I don't go back on my word." Everyone else smirked, gaining a confidence boost. "Well, I admire your determination. For those of you remaining there's only one thing left to do. And that's for me to tell you; you've all passed the first exam."

Naruto fell out of his seat. "Hold on, what do you mean we've passed? Where's the tenth question." Kagome shook her head, seems like the others didn't figure it out. Ibiki chuckled, grinning. "There never was one! Well, not a written one at least! To stay was the answer to the tenth question!"

Dazed, Sakura sat back down. "Wait a second," Temari began, anger thick in her tone. "So the other nine questions; they were just a waste of time? Is that what you're saying?!" Kagome shook her head again; was she the only one who did find it out?

"No, no, not at all. Quite the opposite." Ibiki answered truthfully. "The first nine questions had an important over-written purpose. To test your ability to obtain strategic intelligence under the most severe circumstances."

Kagome sent a taunting look at Hakudoshi who was annoyed that he hadn't figured that out. "Oh, well that clears up everything." Temari sighed. "Let me explain," Ibiki began.

"See my objective was to test you on not only as an individual, but as a team, and how well you function being that part of the team. That's why the test was scored on a team bases. So this way, everything you did or failed to do would directly affect your teammates. I wanted to see how you would handle the pressure."

"Mhmm, yeah I figured it was something like that—that's why I kept my cool." Almost immediately, Kagome, Sakura, and Sasuke all thought at the same time, _'No you didn't.' _exasperated expression on their face.

"The first nine questions on the test were difficult. In fact, some of you realized too difficult for any regular genin to solve. I imagine most you quickly came to that conclusion that you'd have to cheat if you had any chance of passing. The fact is; the test was designed to encourage cheating, almost demanded it."

Kagome and Gaara discreetly shared a look, both slightly nodding to each other. "Of course it would have helped to know who you were cheating from. I disguised two chunin who knew the answers and had them sit in with you." Kagome snickered, seeing that one of them was one of the guys that she copied from.

"Of course! You'd have to be a complete idiot to not see it! Right Hinata?" Kagome spared a glance at Sasuke, watching as a stupefied question appeared on his face. "To those who got caught; better to cheat, than to cheat clumsily."

Ibiki took off his bandana styled headband. "Information: it can be the most valuable weapon in battle. How well your intelligence is can determine a mission's failure or success. They'll be times you'll have to risk your life for it."

All at once, Kagome, Miroku, and Hakudoshi sent each other a secretive look, nodding at each other in agreement. "Of course you must always consider the source of your information. Intelligence gathered from an enemy is not necessarily accurate."

Ibiki tied his bandana around his head again. "Always bare this in mind; disinformation can be worse than no information at all. It can lead to wars, destruction of villages, loss of loved ones and comrades. That's why I put you in the position where you had to gather accurate intelligence, in other words, cheat to survive. That's why those who weren't good enough were weeded out, leaving the rest of you."

Temari stared at him dryly. "Okay, but I'm still not getting what the tenth question was about." Ibiki looked surprised. "You're not? That questioned was the main part of this exam, surly you see that." Kagome sighed, standing up. "I understand it. I was hoping I wasn't the only one, but I think I am."

Ibiki stared at her, nodding slowly to show her he was listening. "Since you already explained the first nine, I hope you won't mind if I explain ten?" Ibiki nodded. She sighed again.

"When you become a chunin—or even a genin at that fact, you're expected to make choices that you can't be absolutely be accurate on, even if they endanger your teammates. You're expected to complete your mission, no matter what the circumstances." Kagome crossed her arms, and annoyed look on her face now.

"For example, s'pose you have to retrieve a document from enemy's arms. You have no idea of their number, strength, skill, but even then you have to be cautious, as they could already be aware of you and be planning a trap. Either way, you can't avoid this danger. Everyone will have missions where you have to fight it out—you can't abandon it."

Ibiki nodded at her reasoning, allowing her to sit. "Like she said—you can't escape this fate. If you want to be a ninja, you have to be ready to sacrifice everything." Everyone still stared at Kagome, wondering why she knew about all this.

"On another note, you have all passed the first part of the Chunin Exams. I hereby declare this part over. I have nothing else to say left but to wish you all good luck." Everyone snapped their heads towards the window when someone smashed through it.

"Heads up boys and girls! This is no time to be celebrating. I'll be your next proctor; Anko Mitarashi!" Anko glared at the genins. "Ready for the next test?"

* * *

**_Author's Note: _****Lol, I got two Naruto episodes in here. I'm not planning on there being a pairing, but if there is, who do you think Kagome should be with? Also guys, I have a Facebook page now. Just search 'Kurosu Yumi' and find me. I just started, so I have only two readers as friends now! xD**

**Read and Review**

**-Alex**


	4. Chapter 4

_**Itazura**_

_**Author's Note: It is just a joke between the team, NaotoH. But that WOULD be funny. I'm not sure about pairings yet, but I'll keep all of your suggestions in mind. Oh yeah, and Kagome's team name is; Team Taisho (After Sesshomaru's father). Sesshomaru's last name is not Taisho though. **_

**Er…Coffee anyone? I don't own a thing.**

* * *

Kagome stared. Hakudoshi stared. Miroku…fainted from a bloody nose. But other than him, everyone stared.

Anko pumped her fist into the air. "Let's go! Follow me!" It went silent as Ibiki stepped from behind the poster-thingy. "You're early—again." Anko blushed.

"How many are there?" She questioned, turning to Ibiki. "Ibiki, you let all of these guys pass? This test was too easy, you must be getting soft."

Ibiki smirked. "Or perhaps it could be we have a stronger group of candidates here?" Anko rolled her eyes, turning back to the genins. "Hm. They sure don't look it. Trust me, when I'm done with them, more than half will be eliminated."

Kagome smirked, she like this women. "Alright you maggots have had it easy so far, but things are going to be different first thing in the morning. I'll let your squad leaders know where you are to meet me."

* * *

Team Taisho were walking down the streets, deep in conversation. "We need to send a scroll to Sesshomaru-sama." Kagome said, thin lipped. "I agree with Kagome-san. If they are going to attack, or even begin their first move, the next part of the exam is the perfect time."

Hakudoshi nodded, pinching the bride of his nose. "As soon as I become ANBU, I'm retiring." He murmured. Kagome shook her head. "Let's just get to Shippo-sensei, we'll tell him what we know and have him send one of his summons out."

They nodded, kicking off with chakra and running on the rooftops. It wasn't long till they caught his signature, though they didn't check to see if others were around. So with one more burst of chakra, they ran into a restaurant and collided with their sensei.

"Oof!" Shippo shouted, catching his female student. Asuma and Kakashi looked at them in surprise. "Are those your genin?" Asuma asked, staring at the three. Shippo winced, moving towards the window to make room for them. "Yeah."

Kagome blinked, sharing a look with her teammates before hissing at them. "You didn't say there were others with him!" They glared back at her. "Well, neither did you!" Kagome huffed, crossing her arms.

She stared at the jonin before her, tugging on Shippo's sleeve and tugged his ear down to her mouth. "We've found out information about the invasion. We need to you send a summon to Sesshomaru-sama."

Asuma and Kakashi watched as Shippo's eyes became cold and he nodded to his students. "I'll meet up with you guys tomorrow. I have something I need to take care of." He looked to the rest of his team. "C'mon."

As soon as they were holding on to him, Shippo and his team disappeared in swirls of black. The two jonin looked towards each other. "What do you think that was about?" Kakashi asked, taking out his Icha Icha Paradise. Asuma eyed the book warily before shrugging. "They probably wanted him to teach them some jutsu."

* * *

It was the next day. Shippo had sent his summon out as soon as he had written the scroll, saying to get their as fast as possible. Now, he was leading them to the next part of the exam.

The others were already there. Kagome waved to Naruto and Sasuke, who waved back, though the latter just lifted his hand in greeting. Shippo bent down to see his students.

"Sesshomaru-sama should be here by the time you guys finish this. I want you to collect as much information as you can without getting caught." He smiled at them. "Be careful, squirts." Shippo ruffled their hair affectionately before disappearing.

"Was that your sensei?" Sakura asked, a little blush sitting atop her face. Kagome's brow twitched. "Yeah…" Kagome's brow twitched again as Sakura let out a breathy sigh. "Oi, fangirl over the Uchiha, leave my sensei alone." Kagome warned.

Sakura flushed, but kept quiet. Anko suddenly began talking. "This is the location for the second part of the exam. It's the forty-forth battle training-zone. But we know it as the Forest of Death."

"Naruto…" Kagome sighed, hand being latched onto by Konohamaru. "Hiya boss! We're on official business!" Naruto looked at them with half lidded eyes. "'Official Business'? Look, I don't have time to be playing around with you guys."

Moegi shook her head. "No it's true boss! We're here for an exclusive interview!" Udon readily agreed with her. Konohamaru let go of Kagome's hand. "We're on an assignment to write an article for the Academy's newspaper. It's a big time story all about the Chunin Exams!"

Moegi blushed. "So that's why we wanna do an exclusive interview!" Anko came over. "Hey, what the hell is going on over there? You're holding the exams up."

Naruto frowned. "Konohamaru was telling me about an exclusive interview for the academy newspaper." Anko blushed, rubbing her head in embarrassment. "Oh yeah, I totally forgot Lord Hokage told me that."

Kagome blinked. "We're taking a ten minute break everyone! Those who are going to be reported, be kind to the reporters!" Kagome smiled, shaking her head and following her teammates.

"Hey, Kagome! Where are you going?" Konohamaru yelled, running over and grabbing her hand. "I'm going with my team?..." Her statement sounded more like a question. Konohamaru shook his head. "Nu huh! You're getting interviewed too!"

Kagome sent a look to her teammates that said, "Help!", but they just sent her a smirk. Sighing, Kagome let Konohamaru drag her to get interviewed. "Alright Kagome, tell us a little about yourself…"

* * *

Kagome shivered. "I _hate _being interviewed." Naruto patted her on the back. "Why do you hate it?" He questioned. "She hates it because it's everyday life back in our village." Miroku answered casually. Sakura narrowed her eyes. "Why? What is she, famous or something?"

Kagome shivered again. "Something like that." Kagome stood up, looking at the Forest. "This whole place gives me the creeps." Sakura said, shaking. "I think that's the point, Sakura." Kagome said wryly.

Anko grinned. "Well they don't call it the Forest of Death for nothing. And soon you're going to find out why." Naruto frowned at that, mimicking Anko. Kagome shook her head as Anko threw a kunai at Naruto, scratching his cheek.

The grass nin moved and her team tensed. "There's something wrong with that one's aura. It's not the same as it used to be…" Miroku murmured, glaring slightly at the nin. Hakudoshi nodded. "I'm guessing we were correct; their planning their first attack now."

Kagome clutched the sword at her hip in reassurance. "We can't make a move now. We have to split up in the forest. Someone still has to watch the Sand and Kabuto." Her team nodded. "I'll watch the Sand nin." Miroku volunteered.

"Leave Kabuto to me." Hakudoshi sneered. Kagome smirked. "I guess I get the Grass then." They tuned back into the world around them. "Now before we begin this test, I want to hand this out these forms." Everyone looked at them curiously.

"Don't worry; they're just standard consent forms. You know—things that say your death isn't tied to the village…" Anko grinned at the scared looks the genin gave her. "Back on topic though, I'll give you all a map of the forest."

Kagome passed the forms on. "There are forty-four blocked entrance gates that all of you are going to be stationed at. Once you're let in, you have to try to make it to the building in the center."

Anko grinned. "It's not that easy though. In the forest, there are man-eating beasts and poisonous plants out there, everything from your worst nightmares. You will have five days to get there. If you're still alive and haven't gotten there in time, a jonin will come retrieve you and you'll be sent home, along with your teammates."

Everyone went to turn around. "Oh, and one more thing. Each team will be assigned a scroll; either a Heaven or Earth scroll. To be let into the tower you have to have both. Your team will receive your scroll when you all turn in your forms." She glared at them. "You are not allowed to open your scroll until you get to the tower. If you do, you're disqualified. Now scram."

Everyone split up, going in different directions. "I'm going to find Sakura, make sure she doesn't die before she gets in there. " Kagome said, a dry smile on her face. She didn't have to go far, and landed next to Shikamaru who sent her a glance.

"What are they fighting about?" Choji munched on his chips. "Not what; who." Kagome rolled her eyes. "So Sasuke then?" Shikamaru nodded. Calmly, Kagome walked into the fight, flicking both of their foreheads.

"You're both weak. Without your teammates, you're nothing." She glared at both. "Happy? The fight is over." She turned to Sakura. "You are coming with me. I'm returning you to your teammates."Sakura and Ino gaped as Kagome began to walk away.

Kagome turned around, sending a smirk to Choji and Shikamaru. "See you after the Exam, good luck." They nodded back. Sakura looked towards Ino and her team to Kagome, her mouth still agape. "Well, are you coming?" Kagome yelled, not stopping.

Sakura quickly scrambled up, running towards the genin. Shikamaru, Choji and Ino shared a look. "What just happened?" Ino asked. Shikamaru lifted his shoulders in a shrug. "I have no idea."

* * *

"Okay, who's carrying the scroll?" Kagome questioned, holding their 'Earth' scroll. Miroku and Hakudoshi shrugged. "Fine, I'll carry it."

She turned towards her team. "Be careful, okay? We meet at the tower." They nodded and split up, three blurs going in opposite directions.

Hakudoshi was starting to regret going after Kabuto. He was just so boring. "Senbons are also good ways to kill enemies, but they are also good to make someone appear dead when they are not…"

Kabuto suddenly stopped, as did his two teammates. The grass nin from before came out of the trees, throwing a scroll at him with a sick smirk.

"Thank you, Lord Orochimaru." Kabuto said, bowing. _'Lord? The hell?' _Hakudoshi though, narrowing his eyes. "Gaara has become interested in a girl."

Kabuto's eyes widened. "It was of my knowledge he didn't care for such trivial things." Kabuto said, stepping forwards a bit. Kabuto gulped. "Would you mind me asking what the girls name is?"

'Orochimaru' smiled. "Her name is Kagome Higurashi. She happens to be the ward of the Kurokage, though no one except her sensei and teammates know of this."

"I'm thinking about placing the curse mark on her too." Hakudoshi had to stop himself from growling. Over his _dead_ body was that creep going to _ever_ touch her!

Kabuto gaped. "You're already planning for the Uchiha to get it. We might need to inform the Sound of this new arrangement."

Orochimaru tilted his head. "I'm aware of that. I believe that after I steal Sasuke-kun's body, I can get Kagome-chan to reproduce to create a stronger line in the Sound Village."

Kabuto shook his head. "You said yourself that this Kagome was ward of the Kurokage. Who's to say he won't go after you? And what about the Uchiha's older brother? Itachi, I think. He could get the Akatsuki to go after us."

Orochimaru chuckled. "Silly Kabuto, I've already thought about that. I'll inform the Sound of the slight change in plans. If the two of them survive this, I want you to meet up with their teams by the tower, understood?"

Kabuto nodded, turning his head away from his lord. "Lord Orochimaru…you're going overboard with your plan." He began to walk, his teammates fallowing. "But either way, I'll fallow you into death, for you saved me so long ago."

Hakudoshi froze in his spot. He had to save her. He had to get to her before the creep did whatever he was going to do to her!

* * *

**_Author's Note: _****Aha, I'm a little proud of this chapter. I think I've made Kagome a bit bipolar, but hey; when is she not? A lot of 'time Skips' in this one too. Took me a while to write this, I had to do a whole bunch of things today.**

**Read and Review!**

**-Alex**


	5. Chapter 5

_**Itazura**_

_**Author's Note: **__**I appreciate all the pairings you guys keep sending in. To Fanficlover16000, I don't think this will become either of those. I might create another NarutoInuyasha drabble story centering around a KagomeHarem though.**_

**Chores suck. A lot. I'm hungry now. I don't own a thing.**

* * *

Miroku whimpered. This was the third team that Gaara had killed. I mean sure, he's killed people before, but the look on his face made him want to cower.

Thankfully, though, they had not noticed he was there. His violet orbs widened and he gulped when his train of thought wondered what would happen if he _did_ get caught.

_'He'd probably gut me with his sand. Or, do that 'sand coffin' thing he did before.' _He shuddered. _'What…what if he eats me?!'_ Miroku stopped in a tree, settling on a branch and wrapping his arms around himself, rocking back and forth.

"I know you're there." Miroku squeaked, covering his mouth with his hands and trying desperately to blend in with the tree. He heard the cork come off of Gaara's gourd, and he tried desperately to not make a noise.

_'This is it. I'm gonna die. I'm never going to see Kagome do her jutsus' anymore. Or Hakudoshi get annoyed to the point of rage. I'm not going to become a chunin. I'm never going to see Sango again. I'm not—.'_

A muffled cry in the tree next to him brought him out of his musings. With wide eyes, he watched as the sand wrapped around the other genin, slowly bringing him to the ground while crushing him. He heard the crunch of bones and winced.

Soon, he heard the footsteps of them walking off. With wide eyes, he jumped down, seeing a heaven scroll in the pack. They'd already gotten their scroll; an Earth, a couple of hours ago. Bending down, he picked it up, bolting out of the clearing.

So what if he cheated, he was assigned to follow the Sand nins, not beat a team himself and get a scroll. "Screw this, I'm finding the others." He murmured to himself, shooting off to where he felt their auras.

* * *

"Shit, I lost him." Kagome growled, trekking through the forest. She'd been distracted by a couple of genin near her and she'd lost sight of the Grass nin.

Kagome shook her head, grabbing the Earth scroll. She was sure that Miroku or Hakudoshi had already collected a Heaven scroll. With the luck that Team Seven had, she was sure they would need the scroll.

Tenten suddenly landed in front of her. "Oh, it's you." Tenten murmured her stance loosening. Kagome gave a no to the rest of her teammates who soon followed. "Where are the rest of your teammates?" Lee asked.

Kagome popped her neck. "We split up—figured we'd cover more ground that way, eliminate more teams." She shrugged. "What scroll do you guys have?" They tensed.

"Heaven." Neji answered, messing with his kunai in case she tried anything. Kagome threw him a scroll, which he caught quickly. "It's an Earth. I have two more—one's mine, and the other is just for keeps."

They stared at her. She turned her head towards the way where the Grass nin had taken off to. "I have to go. I got some people I need to hunt down." They shivered at the sadistic gleam in her eyes before she took off.

They stared at each other. "She doesn't look like much, but I have a feeling she likes to fight…" Tenten whispered. Neji nodded. His Byakugan had been activated when they found her. Her chakra reserves rivaled Naruto's.

That was a lot.

* * *

"What the hell?" Kagome asked, more to herself. She had climbed a tree to the top, to see if she could catch sight of her teammates or the Grass nin.

Then a giant explosion of dust appeared a couple hundred feet in front of her. Despite her duty to find them, her curiosity was piqued. So with another burst of chakra, she took off towards the still visible dust cloud.

She stopped in a clearing just as a bunch of Naruto's exploded a giant snake from the inside out. "Oh, that is _gross._" Kagome said, making a face at the pile of snake goop that landed next to her.

"Kagome?" Naruto questioned, his other clones poofing out of existence. Kagome smirked. "The one and only. Where are the others?" Naruto deflated.

"I don't know. I lost them when that big dust thing blew us away from each other." Kagome nodded just before a scream cut through the air. They turned to each other, wide eyed. "You don't think…"

They both shook their heads, taking off towards the sound."You get Sakura, I'll get Sasuke, okay?" Naruto nodded a fierce look on his face.

They broke into the clearing to see Naruto's teammates paralyzed in fear. With a nod, they lunged at each person, breaking them out of their trance and falling to the ground.

Kagome winced. "Sasuke, get off me. You're _heavy._" When he didn't respond, Kagome pinched his arm, which seemed to wake him up seeing he glared at her.

"Uchiha, get off me. Now. Before I knee you were the sun don't shine." She warned him, watching as he quickly got off her.

Kagome looked towards who had paralyzed them, seeing the creepy Grass nin she'd been tracking before.

"Ah, Kagome-chan. This makes it so much easier for me to do!" The Gras nin chuckled. Kagome got a look from Sasuke. "I don't know the creep. So don't bother asking, Sasuke."

She looked towards Naruto, who was carrying a passed out Sakura. "We have to go. You both have lost a lot of chakra." She murmured.

She glared at them when they tried to resist. Sasuke turned back to Orochimaru. "Oh no, Uchiha. You're coming with me." She grabbed his arm, wrapping it around her neck as she and Naruto ran off.

Orochimaru smiled. "So that's how you wanna play." He licked his lips. "Let the chase begin, Kagome-chan."

Sasuke glared at her, ripping his arm away as soon as they landed. "Don't' give me that look, Uchiha." Kagome said, her voice turning icy. "One more moment and you would've been dead. Naruto and I saved your lives. Be grateful, you bastard."

Naruto looked between his rival and bestfriend and his new friend in slight worry. He'd never seen either of them so…angry. "I agree with Kagome-chan, Sasuke-kun." Orochimaru's voice spoke, coming in all directions.

Kagome cursed, bringing out her kunai. "I should thank Kagome-chan properly for helping me keep your body safe." Kagome froze.

Sasuke and Naruto whirled around to see Orochimaru right behind Kagome, his mouth near her neck. Sasuke looked towards Naruto. He couldn't do anything, he had to protect Sakura. And Kagome's teammates weren't here, so that left it to him.

Running, he grabbed her just before Orochimaru went to bite her. Both immediately got up, following Naruto who brought Sakura down to the ground to not risk her falling off the large branch they had been on.

* * *

"Holy shit!" Miroku yelped, quickly stopping himself from falling onto the giant snake that appeared out of nowhere. He squinted his eyes, seeing Naruto go for it and Kagome, Sasuke, and Sakura all the way back, though the latter was passed out.

Growling, he started to do hand seals. "Naruto, get the hell out of the way!" The blond looked at him before noticing his hand seals, jumping out of the way just in time for Miroku to say, "Secret Technique: Lightning Breath." and for him to shoot out lightning bolts…from his _mouth._

"That was so awesome!" Naruto grinned, watching as it caused a giant burn mark on the large snake. Miroku disappeared in a swirl of black before appearing next to him. "So, who are we fighting?"

Hakudoshi appeared next. "His name is Orochimaru. He has followers." He spat, glaring at him. Naruto looked at him. "Him? But that's a girl!"

A chuckled from who they were talking about made them look up. "Ah, Naruto-kun. Haku-kun is right," To prove his point, Orochimaru pulled off his skin, revealing another, creepier, and paler looking face under it.

Kagome blanched. This guy was sick. The fight continued. All of them took turns, expect for Sasuke. He could barely move from his spot. Kagome shivered when she felt Naruto's chakra spike.

"Should I go after Kagome-chan first?" Orochimaru hissed, directing his snake towards her and lunging. Kagome saw Hakudoshi and Miroku trying to get to her, but they weren't going to make it. She wanted to move; oh she badly wanted to move.

But those eyes…they kept her frozen in her spot. And then Naruto stopped it. And she was starring into eyes she knew too well.

Eyes of a demon.

A demon who'd lost everything.

**_A junchuriki. _**

"Hey…Kagome." Naruto winced, though a blood thirsty smirk was on his face. Kagome didn't have time to reply, since the snake's tongue wrapped around him, bringing him to eye level with Orochimaru.

Kagome didn't hear the conversation, but she immediately sprang into action when Orochimaru pressed glowing fingers to Naruto's stomach, his body being flown back.

"I'm getting to old for this." Kagome grumbled, lying Naruto down next to Sakura. Sasuke seemed to be having an inner battle with himself. Kagome smirked when he activated his sharingan, growling in anger.

Orochimaru seemed to only be focused on Sasuke now. As Hakudoshi and Miroku guarded her, she healed Naruto's injuries the best to her ability.

Soon the two had even disappeared from view completely. "We need to find out more about this Orochimaru." Hakudoshi sighed, leaning against a tree. He would never admit it, but he was glad he'd gotten there in time before anything had happened.

His eyes strayed towards Kagome. He'd probably end up killing himself if he'd gotten there too late. He'd promised he'd repay her back, no matter what it took.

Sasuke and Orochimaru suddenly broke through the clearing, the former getting beaten. "What a disappointment you turned out to be. You're ancestors weep." Orochimaru sighed, kicking Sasuke. "The Uchiha's should be thankful for the favor I'm doing of killing you."

The back of Orochimaru's coat blew up, and Sasuke jumped away, throwing kunai and shuriken with strings attached at him as him as he went.

It wasn't long until he had him wrapped up to a tree. Kagome watched with a small smirk as Sasuke did hand signs, blowing out fire onto the strings. When the flames went away, there was no one there.

Everyone tensed. "Such mastery at the sharingan at such a young age." The voice came from everywhere, and everyone became paralyzed from fear.

"Yes…you and Kagome-chan will do _very_ nicely." He hissed it out, and everyone shivered at the intent behind it.

"You ate definitely his brother, Sasuke-kun. If anything, your eyes are keener than Itachi's." Team Taishio's eyes widened. They knew that name…

"What…do…you want…" Sasuke panted. Orochimaru appeared behind him, licking his neck with his snake like tongue. "What I want is going to have to wait until we meet again."

With that said, Orochimaru bit down. Two yells of, "Uchiha!" and one of, "Sasuke!" rang out when Sasuke gave a cry of pain, bringing him to his knees.

Three tomoe marks appeared when Orochimaru disconnected himself from Sasuke. He chuckled happily. Sasuke growled, trying to fight even as he clutched his neck in pain.

They didn't have enough time to react as Orochimaru went for Kagome. A white blur moved in front of her and a cry that was not her own pierced the air.

Blood splattered on the ground.

* * *

**_Author's Note: _****Ooh! A not so cliffy cliffhanger! Lol. This chapter is a bit short compared to the rest of the chapters. But I think that's because I tried to put a lot of detail in here without if being too obvious. I guess I gave that away…**

**Read and Review!**

**-Alex**


	6. Chapter 6

**Ah…hey guys. I'm sorry I didn't update yesterday. I found out that while I was in the USA, a really good friend of mine committed suicide. I don't think I've cried that much in a while.**

**I'll continue to update on Playdough, since it's easier because I've got up to chapter 20 finished, but for Itazura I'll just write the chapters, and then start slowly posting them.**

**I hope you guys understand. I'm not giving up on this story, it's like my baby now (*Insert Heart*). I just need a little time to adjust to the suicide.**

**To keep you guys busy, I'll be popping out a few one-shots too. And if I begin another long story without updating on this one, you guys are free to yell at me if you feel like it.**

**(I just woke up, by the way. Still getting used to the change in time zone.)**

**So, yeah. I guess that's all I have to say.**

**Sincerely,**

**_Alex_**


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